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A fact from Michael Stroukoff appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 2 December 2010 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
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Also, Russian sources present Stroukoff's adventures in the 1950s in a different light: the congressional decision to terminate the C-123 contract with Kaiser and pass it to Fairchild was not [purely] political. Edgar Kaiser (Sr.) indeed inflated the price of C-123 contract so badly that the Congress was obliged to act with or without political considerations. Stroukoff sued Kaiser and walked away with a $2M settlement. He returned to Chase (not Stroukoff Corp.) as sole owner/manager (Kaiser backed off from his shares at some point in their feud), produced improved C-123 and YC-134 but never had commercial success. East of Borschov 10:39, 28 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
I'd found the bit about Kaiser's inflated prices before, but I couldn't re-find it when writing the article, alas. With regard to General Strukov, I dunno. There isn't very much out there at all about Stroukoff, it seems - he might well have been Mikhail Strukov and changed his name/had it mis-recorded upon immigration? Also, everything I've found says that the later company (making the -134) was named "Stroukoff"; might well have just changed the nameplates after the Kaiser fiasco, though...?
Also, two things I couldn't confirm. One was that Stroukoff, during his architect years, designed the original Elizabeth Arden Building in New York; the other, much more intriguing, perhaps, is that in 1996 the Russian Academy of Science named Stroukoff, de Seversky, and Sikorsky as the three most important Russian emigré aircraft designers to contribute to the development of aviation in the US. Finding a WP:RS for that would be a prize! - The BushrangerReturn fireFlank speed 11:05, 28 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
The architecture Q - at least two men with the same surname practiced architecture in Moscow before WW1. One of them (ru:Струков, Николай Дмитриевич) did not emigrate, or, at least, was present in Moscow in 1926. Another one vanished in the fog of war. Could it be that there's contamination of different Strukovs and Stroukoffs ??
The academy Q seems a no-go. Nothing on the web, and the very statement seems dubious to me. The academy does not issue statements like this. It probably was spoken at some academy event, or published in one of its journals - ?? East of Borschov 11:24, 28 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Hmm. Cross-contamination? Quite possibly, although the source for Stroukoff's architectural prowess was citing the rememberances of his kids. As for the academy: http://www.aero-web.org/specs/fairchil/xc-123.htm this] was the (VERY dubious) source for that claim (you can see why I didn't include it ;) ). It does sound like the kind of thing that a keynote speaker would say in an after-banquet speech though, doesn't it? - The BushrangerReturn fireFlank speed 17:03, 28 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Just found this - note reference 1. I don't read Russian (and it's late), do they have a page for Stroukoff perhaps? - The BushrangerReturn fireFlank speed 09:57, 30 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
It's the same author (V. R. Mikheev) that I used for Bothezat's bio. I have his Russian Aircraft Emigration (brief bios from Voprosy Istorii, an Academy journal) and a long bio of Sikorsky. Both contain the phrase "Sikorsky's firm gave America a string of passenger transports that were ahead of their time, Seversky gave fighters, Strukov's company started the transport wing of the USAF" ("Если фирма Сикорского дала Америке ряд удачных пассажирских машин, опередивших свое время, а Северского — прекрасные истребители, то компания Струкова — толчок развитию военно-транспортной авиации США" - it's about intetwar period, no helicopters yet). I suspect that this Sikorksy-Seversky-Strukov mantra was somehow distorted into an "Academy opinion". But there's nothing on Strukov himself that's not already in the article.
I found one Russian article on C123 [1] that might add a few sentences on his life prior to 1943. But sources don't agree; Pattillo p. 165 says that Chase Corp. was founded "in 1944 in the Bronx primarily by former Kaiser" people, Kudishin writes it was 1943, and that Chase Brothers (sic) was an old, established furniture shop in Manhattan. He also names a certain date: that Strukov signed a contract with US govt on September 30, 1943 (sic) and immediately after it established Chase Aircraft Co. So there may be no disagreement at all, except that according to Kudishin Strukov already had a full-size model built and tested. In Manhattan. It's like blind men and an elephant: each source reports only a small piece of the story, and who am I to WP:SYN these pieces back together? East of Borschov 16:31, 30 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Pattillo referenced "Mad Russian Stroukoff" to Donald Marr Nelson, Arsenal of Democracy, p. 238 (text available on questia.com). - ?? East of Borschov 16:40, 30 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
Good point on the SYN. Frustrating trying to piece together bits and pieces into a coherent article though! Most of the sources I could find agree that Strukoff founded Chase Aircraft in 1943, hadn't heard about the furniture store before, but that makes sense given the didbit I found that said he'd been working on Art Deco furniture (and would explain "why 'Chase'?"). As for Nelson, I'd assume that's the 1973 edition, which doesn't have anything on Google Books, grr! And so these men of Indostan/Disputed loud and long indeed. Thanks for the help though, this is great stuff to learn about! - The BushrangerReturn fireFlank speed 18:59, 30 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]
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